Out of the way

I have known for a while that I would need a new passport soon - unless you lose it (which is a fear of mine, but not one that has ever been realised) you can see it coming up.

So I rang the chap at the consulate and explained that I needed a new passport. He asked me when the old one expred and I explained that it hadn't (and wouldn't for another five years), it was just full. "If you find it filling up that fast you might like to think about getting a 64-page passport" he said.

"I have one. But it's full".

OK. So I turn up, to an empty room except for the security guy manning the scanner at the door, who takes my phones away. At the counter they take my passport and call the relevant bloke, who comes to talk to me. The process is pretty simple - I had come early the next day, as advised, and went to the photo shop around the corner who gets their business in exchange for photos they like (or accept without comment, anyway). They already had my previous passport application in front of them, but they needed me to fill in a form. Actually, all I had to do was note my height and sign the prefilled thing. Standing by the door where they had marked off lines every 5cm like when kids measure how they are growing, I suspected they hadn't had many tall people come for a passport that includes "biometrics". The lines only went up to 185cm, so we had a guess at how tall I am and that seemed to satisfy them. And apart from paying for a new double-size passport, that was about that.

"We say that it will take ten working days, but it never really takes that long".

"OK. But I will be away when it comes back in any case - I am leaving tomorrow, for a few weeks".

Sure enough, less than a week later they had been trying to call Eva, whose phone was off, and then they sent me a message, apparently upset they could not get hold of her and telling me my passport was ready, asking for explicit acknowledgement. So I told them I would be back to collect it when I returned in a few weeks. Which I was. Again, an empty room, a short wait, sign a form and hand over my old passport for them to cancel, but return to me since it contains various visas I need.

Now I have a shiny new passport - with an RFID chip in it so anyone close enough to me can find out who I am - especially if I am in a country where carrying ID is mandatory (and I remember that and carry it). I wonder if I need a tinfoil hat for my passport, but I suspect that I cannot be bothered doing anything about it.

I had to apply to renew my residence, which meant that I had to provide copies of both the old and new passport, since the number changed and they needed to see that I was really me. I also got a visa for China - the first actual mark in my passport, which is on page 7. Why? That isn't an especially auspicious number in China as far as I know. But that makes me check my old passport. Sure enough, the first thing that went into it (a visa for Hungary) was also on page 7.

I still have to do various things with various immigration agencies. But at least I have the comfort of knowing that I still have 60-odd empty pages (I was down to 3, which was not going to be enough) and won't have to explain anytime soon that the magic number by which the country of my birth identifies me to the world actually changes from time to time.